All items will have their stats and socket bonuses squished. In addition, items that have hit and expertise will have those stats removed and converted into a useful secondary stat like haste, crit, or mastery. Spirit will no longer be found on armor pieces as well (it can still be found on non-armor pieces like necks).

You can see these gear changes by visiting wod.wowhead.com. Or, if you're on an item's specific page, click on the "Warlords of Draenor" text at the top left to be taken to the Warlords version of the page.

You can also see other stat changes in our Warlords database such as consumables, and gems.

In additional, several rewards will no longer be obtainable in upcoming patches. Some of these changes are coming in 6.0, others are hitting a couple months later for WoD. Players who have already obtained these rewards will hold onto them:

Garrosh Heirlooms: Click here for a full list. These will be easier to get when 6.0 hits including a 100% chance of getting a spec-appropriate heirloom if you've gotten none. These weapons are later removed in Warlords of Draenor.

What is remaining: You can still go for all achievements like Glory of the Orgrimmar Raider, transmog set, all of the battle pets, and the titles associated for killing Garrosh.

The raid difficulties will change names in 6.0 as well. The Flexible raid tier will be removed. Instead of LFR, Flex, Normal and Heroic, there will be LFR, Normal, Heroic, and Mythic. Group Finder allows players to form cross-realm groups on Normal and Heroic.

Outside of the blog, it was revealed on Twitter today that NPCs will be added that let you solo queue for old LFRs and scenarios. In the future, it will be easier to pick up all those LFR-specific tier colors for transmog!

Click the cut to read the blog!

Blizzard

In the recent Dev Watercooler: Raiding Azeroth Part 3—Warlords of Draenor, we discussed some of the raid changes coming in the next WoW expansion. Before Warlords of Draenor launches, players will have a chance to experience the new raid structure firsthand in the Siege of Orgrimmar.In the upcoming Patch 6.0, the pre-expansion “systems” update planned to go live in the weeks leading up to Warlords of Draenor’s release, we’ll be converting Siege of Orgrimmar to use the new Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties. Both Normal and Heroic difficulties will support flexible raid sizes and our cross-server Group Finder tool, while Mythic will be a fixed 20-player size. At the same time, “stat squish” will be in effect, the new class changes will be live, and Hit and Expertise will no longer be stats on items, so those will be replaced with more useful ones on all existing items. The raid as a whole will be retuned for the new numbers and scaling size—overall, it should prove no more difficult than it is currently, and will likely be easier in many places.With the end of an expansion and a raid tier, along with introduction of a new level cap, we’ll also be retiring a handful of rewards. We want to encourage everyone to enjoy one last hurrah in the Siege of Orgrimmar before your adventure on Draenor begins.In addition to the above changes, when Patch 6.0 arrives:

Flexible Raid difficulty will cease to exist as it does now, and will be removed from the raid queue interface. The new Normal difficulty of Siege of Orgrimmar will offer a similar experience to that of Flexible Raid.

The new Group Finder tool will be available, designed to help players create and find groups for Normal and Heroic Siege of Orgrimmar and other cross-realm group content.

Siege of Orgrimmar achievements will be relabeled according to the new difficulty structure (e.g. “Heroic: Malkorok” will now be “Mythic: Malkorok”). Credit for these will be retroactively awarded to players who earned them before Patch 6.0.

Comments

Comment by healdeez

on 2014/05/06 07:38:47

So happy they're making heirlooms 100% drop rate for the patch at least, getting a kill a week in flex and 10 normal for the last couple months and still not having anything drop has been driving me nuts, I was really starting to be concerned i wouldn't get one before the expansion hits

Comment by pedroiguatemy

on 2014/05/06 07:45:05

What do you mean 6.0 is coming in some weeks ?Cause , season 15 just startet , does that mean we would have an early end of season 15 when 6.0 arrives or we weillhave major class changes during the course of a season ?

Comment by Alfa

on 2014/05/06 07:53:15

When is 6.0 coming? If anyone knows.

Want to get signed back up to get the mount before they take it away and prepare for the exp.

They haven't said that I have seen, but the WoD is going to be before the end of the year. If you haven't gotten geared up for SoO yet/don't have a guild raid spot waiting for you when you get back, though, I recommend sooner rather than later- it can be hard to get into a normal run that can clear Garrosh without gear of a good part of the achievements. A lot of guilds that have Garrosh on farm are either doing heroic modes now, or have fallen prey to the lull between expacs, and even those who do still do the normal run don't necessarily pug spots too often.

I left in December, had like a 540 il. Should be good.

Comment by Rankkor

on 2014/05/06 08:28:59

Players who have yet to get any Heirlooms will have a 100% (guaranteed) chance of getting a spec-appropriate Heirloom when defeating Garrosh on Normal difficulty or higher.

The chance of receiving additional Heirlooms beyond the first will also be increased.

FINALLY. Some justice.

If their plan was to remove these, then they should had been 100% for the first, and high-drop rate for the rest since 5.4 went live. Still, something is better than nothing.

I am upset that they are removing them with the WoD release.

Well, it could be worse. They could just remove them when WoD released and nothing else. Instead, they're doing something slightly better, since about a month and a half prior to the release, the heirlooms will have a 100% drop rate for your first, and a much higher drop rate for the rest.

I am going to have to hurry and get that mount and the Garrosh heirlooms.

If you still haven't obtained your first heirloom, you have about 3-4 months to gear up your main in order to secure a spot in OQ groups to SoO, and then 1-2 months to get at least 1 garrosh kill, which will guarantee your heirloom drop.

You will have to hurry for the mount though, because that one is going away in 6.0

Having said that, there's quite a few mounts datamined in WoD that use a very similar model..........

Why even bother making them in the first place?

I dunno. At least the challenge mode rewards were there for almost 2 years. And I can understand that they want to give garrosh kills while they're current, that air of exclusivity, but I thought that's what the wolf and FoS were for. I thought that the heirlooms would serve as incentives to keep coming back to SoO in later expansions.

Comment by kill3r4ever

on 2014/05/06 08:44:21

they're not removing it, they're actually making it rare

Comment by Greystar

on 2014/05/06 08:52:04

Okay that's kinda silly lets make the Heirlooms weapons drop better pre-WoD then remove them in WoD. They should leave them in as they are, maybe still increasing the drop rate a bit. I understand why they are removing some of the titles and what not since once you hit 100 and go back into the raids they'll be easier...

Comment by ghmaster8

on 2014/05/06 08:58:38

"These will be easier to get when 6.0 hits including a 100% chance of getting a spec-appropriate heirloom if you've gotten none. These weapons are removed in Warlords of Draenor."this is kinda confusing, are they increasing the drop chance or removing it?

Comment by perculia

on 2014/05/06 09:11:36

They are temporarily increasing the drop rate between 6.0 and WoD, and then removing it in WoD.

Comment by ghmaster8

on 2014/05/06 09:18:45

oh i thought 6.0 is WoD

Comment by kwms

on 2014/05/06 10:30:49

Are they removing the Heriloom weapons or just the possiblitiy to get them later on Warlords ?

Comment by Adamsm

on 2014/05/06 10:39:37

Are they removing the Heriloom weapons or just the possiblitiy to get them later on Warlords ?

Weapons will still be around, but once the expansion drops, you cannot get them anymore.

Comment by SoniStreet

on 2014/05/06 12:07:48

Does anyone know if Normal(10-30) will have personal loot like FLEX does today if you find groups using the new dungeon finder? Or will there be ninjas like in old days?...

Comment by GustoGA

on 2014/05/06 13:30:52

"I believe" Normal and Heroic will drop group loot and it will scale 2-5/6 pieces depending on the number of players. NOTE: its not set 14 players get 3 pieces and 15 get 4. It's more like @ 15 players is 100% for 3 pieces and 70-90% (random number) for that 4th/5th piece. So folks wont feel obligated to bring a set number of players.

So Ninja's are back in action...."I think"

Comment by Greystar

on 2014/05/06 18:12:47

"I believe" Normal and Heroic will drop group loot and it will scale 2-5/6 pieces depending on the number of players. NOTE: its not set 14 players get 3 pieces and 15 get 4. It's more like @ 15 players is 100% for 3 pieces and 70-90% (random number) for that 4th/5th piece. So folks wont feel obligated to bring a set number of players.

So Ninja's are back in action...."I think"

If I do discover that loot ninjas do make a resurgence in WoD it might make me quit playing WoW for good, the added individual potential drops by spec was one of the things that slightly encouraged me to once again participate in raids more frequently.

Comment by Strick75

on 2014/05/06 18:53:20

With the gear changes I have lost all interest in this game... they lied when they said it wasn't a nerf. All of my toons were twinked out from 70-85 and now that gear has been reduced to barely better than BoA. I put to much work into my toons to stay after this kind of a nerf.

Comment by Azrile

on 2014/05/06 19:20:41

"I believe" Normal and Heroic will drop group loot and it will scale 2-5/6 pieces depending on the number of players. NOTE: its not set 14 players get 3 pieces and 15 get 4. It's more like @ 15 players is 100% for 3 pieces and 70-90% (random number) for that 4th/5th piece. So folks wont feel obligated to bring a set number of players.

So Ninja's are back in action...."I think"

If I do discover that loot ninjas do make a resurgence in WoD it might make me quit playing WoW for good, the added individual potential drops by spec was one of the things that slightly encouraged me to once again participate in raids more frequently.

Loot options will be set by the raid leader. There will be an option for ´personal loot´ which is how LFR works. If you are doing a pure pug, then just ask beforehand what type of loot they are using, and if it is not personal loot, then join one that will use it.

My guild, which brings a few extra people, will be using personal loot and I am sure many others will also because it is less of a headache and you don´t have to keep spreadsheets to keep track of who came and who didn´t. I am fairly certain that it will be very easy to find groups that use personal loot and that nazi raid leaders who try to do a pure pug and use ´master looter´ will quickly find that they can´t fill groups.

Comment by Shijune

on 2014/05/07 01:42:41

The solo queue for old LFR content is really nice. Been wanting that yellow coloured druid transmog for ages :D

Though, it could be a 1-3 people queue, not that it is hard to solo it, but it's always more fun doing it in a group with friends.

Well.. can't have it all I guess.

Comment by ken2445

on 2014/05/07 01:58:02

Why no new character models? Why no beta? Why?

Comment by craaziedk

on 2014/05/07 06:07:16

Looks like the Juggernaut is going to be a 3.18% drop rate, not a 1%.

Comment by Napish

on 2014/05/07 08:32:50

I don't see why they're removing the juggernaught mount rather than like the previous expansions change it from 100% to 1%.

The " Kor'kron Juggernaut" mount will cease being a guaranteed drop from Mythic Garrosh Hellscream, and will instead become a rare drop (like Invincible's Reins, Mimiron's Head, etc.).